Courtesy of Rights Action, here’s a story discussing a reparations plan for Genocide survivors and Mayan-Achi people who were massacred and forcibly evicted from their communities in the 1970s and 1980s - to make way for the Inter-American Development Bank- and World Bank-funded Chixoy hydro-electric dam.

CHIXOY DAM AGREEMENT
By Hugo Alvarado, www.prensalibre.com
Translated by Rosalind M. Gill, for Rights Action

The Government and communities affected by the construction of the Chixoy Dam have signed an agreement to set up a reparations plan. Diego Paz, representative of the OEA, Rafael Espada, Vice-president, and Juan …

The Brazilian Supreme Court has suspended the police operation that sought to evict a group of rice farmers illegally occupying Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Roraima.

The decision came last Wednesday (April 9), after the farmers began threatening and attacking the regions indigenous people, destroying bridges, and setting up roadblocks to resist their eviction.

According to the Associated Press,

The court blocked the eviction of farmers from the Raposa Serra do Sol reservation late Wednesday, saying protests by the settlers… could erupt into “a veritable civil war.”

Roraima …

While the Canadian Government takes great care to ensure its own safety against the dangers of asbestos, you’ll probably never hear them make too big a fuss about it — what with Canada being a leading exporter of the patient killer — it just wouldn’t be economical to draw too much attention to it.

So instead they seem to be using tax-payers dollars and their own embassies to actively promote the sale and distribution of abestos to countries like India and Pakistan. On top of that, at the moment the …

A small group of rice farmers illegally occupying indigenous lands in the Brazilian state of Roraima have recently turned violent in an effort to resist their eviction.

Survival International explains in a recent release that at least one person has been injured, a local Indigenous Leader in the community of Barro, after the farmers threw a home-made bomb into his home. The farmers have also set up roadblocks and burned at least three bridges leading into Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous territory.

Home to the the Makuxi, Wapixana, Ingarikó and Taurepang, …

Here you will find Justicia Now! a 30-minute documentary produced by Mofilms to help raise awareness about “ChevronTexaco’s toxic legacy in the Northern Ecuadorian region of the Amazon rainforest - and a courageous group of people called Los Afectados (The Affected Ones) who are seeking justice for the ensuing cancer, sickness and death in the largest environmental class action lawsuit in history.”

According to a Press Release sent out last November, the documentary was originally supposed to premiere at the Artivist Film Festival, but Director Martin O’Brien pulled it out after the festival announced a ‘new relationship’ with …

Six of the seven members of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nation were sentenced yesterday to six months in jail for opposing unsanctioned development on their Traditional lands. (video)

KIFN has yet to make any formal statements about the ruling, but Deputy Grand Chief Glen Hare, representing the 42 member communities of the Anishinabek Nation, has spoke out in support of the Six.

“In one breath we hear Ontario talk about the importance of First Nations sharing in the wealth of the province’s resource revenues, and in the next breath …

With Tibet exiles attempting to return home, the Chinese government is in the midst of conducting a “people’s war” of violence and propaganda against Tibetan Buddhists and anyone who supports the Dalai Lama. Since this began, about one week ago, anywhere up to 300 demonstrators have died and hundreds more have been detained. By the looks of things, the situation is going to get a lot worse in the coming days.

What you Can do to Help
Students for a Free Tibet ask you to “contact your local government …

In the last month, two of the four States that opposed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People issued “apology resolutions” for the historical crimes they committed against indigenous people. First it was Australia on February 13th; and then America threw up an apology of it’s own a couple weeks later, on March 1st.

It’s particularly interesting considering how both States continue to utilize the very same policies they claim to be so sorry about. Or perhaps, that’s not why they’re apologizing?

The Australian Apology
Focusing primarily on the …

Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation (KIFN) Chief Donnie Morris and five other members of the community will soon find out if they, like Ardoch Algonquin spokesperson Robert Lovelace, will be fined and incarcerated for asserting their own rights—that is, for attempting to stop a molestation by walking away from Canada’s so-called consultation process and refusing to accept unsanctioned development on their land as “a given.”

According to a recent Press Release by KIFN, which you can find below, sentencing will take place on March 17 at the Superior Court of …

Over the weekend, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was informed that Agroflora, an affiliate of the British Vestey Group, illegally set up a fence that encircled 200 Yaruro indigenous people. According to the denunciations filed by Representative Cristóbal Jiménez, “the farm put up a fence around them and they can’t get out without permission from the farm owners.” Another 800 People remained outside of the fence.

After learning this on Sunday, Chavez quickly ordered the National Guard to demolish the fence, allowing the indigenous people to once again move freely. “If they want …